How Hard Is It To Be A Good Person?

I was reminded of a powerful quote from C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity (A book that I believe everyone should read). When Lewis is exploring self-control and temptation he wrote this:

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.” -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

For anyone who is striving and struggling to be like Christ, this quote hits hard. If you have ever tried to overcome a broken desire in yourself, you truly know how hard it is to fight that desire. It can emotionally and even physically excruciating.

This week we are exploring the biggest enemies of self-control. My hope is that once we have revealed our enemies we can begin to fight them and live the life God wants for us.
 
Tomorrow is also a special day because it's also baptism Sunday! It's a great day to worship and celebrate what God is doing with Arborway.